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My Review:Title: Smut
Author: Karina Halle
Published by: Indie
Release Date: May 16, 2016
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 299
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2023 Backlist Reader Challenge, Lenoreo's 2023 Bookish Resolutions DTTH, Lenoreo's 2023 COYER Chapter 2
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon
My rating:
Blurb:What happens when the kink between the pages leads to heat between the sheets?
All Blake Crawford wants is to pass his creative writing course, get his university degree and take over his dad’s ailing family business. What Amanda Newland wants is to graduate at the top of her class, as well as finally finish her novel and prove to her family that writing is a respectful career.
What Blake and Amanda don’t want is to be paired up with each other for their final project but that’s exactly what they both get when they’re forced to collaborate on a writing piece. Since Amanda thinks Blake is a pushy asshole (with a panty-melting smirk and British accent) and Blake thinks Amanda has a stick up her ass (though it’s a brilliant ass), they fight tooth and nail until they discover they write well together. They also might find each other really attractive, but that’s neither here nor there.
When their writing project turns out to be a success, the two of them decide to start up a secret partnership together using a pen name, infiltrating the self-publishing market in the lucrative genre of erotica. Naturally, with so much heat and passion between the pages, it’s not long before their dirty words become a dirty reality. Sure, they still fight a lot but at least there’s make-up sex now.
But even as they start to fall hard for each other, will their burgeoning relationship survive if their scandalous secret is exposed or are happily-ever-afters just a work of fiction?
3.5 stars — There were parts of this book that were fantastic, but alas I think this author and I just aren’t quite a match. For all that this one is billed as a romantic comedy, I didn’t really laugh that much…mismatch. And as I’m sure you’re tired of reading and wondering why I still pick them up, I’m not huge on enemies to lovers…again mismatch. Although if I’m being honest, this one worked pretty well for that. They each had their assumptions about the other, and were coloured by their own recent relationship history, and that made for their initial interactions to be a case of both being on their worst behavior at first. 😉 And honestly? It turned around at a reasonable enough rate that I was okay with it.
That’s the thing, there were a few things in the way this story played out that I actually really appreciated. When I saw it was going to be one of those fuck buddies to more books, I was wary…usually they go in one specific way, but this one felt smoother. Like there was the potential for more angst and blow up and I usually roll my eyes at all that and get frustrated, but this one just kind of worked more like it would in real life. I really appreciated that. Yes, there was conflict at the climax, but I felt like while there were mistakes made, they both owned up to them relatively easily, without pulling teeth. And even owning to their feelings went more smoothly than I was expecting.
So why is it not full 4 stars? Even though I actually appreciated who Blake grew into, I was not really into the cocky asshole he was at the beginning. Now, neither was Amanda necessarily, so maybe I wasn’t supposed to be? But she fell for his charms earlier than I would have I guess. But Blake did have his soft side that we got to see, especially when it came to Kevin. On the flip side, while I loved Amanda’s nerdy/dorky side, she could be a bit frustrating in her righteousness at times. And we definitely got to see her grow too, but not in the same way as Blake.
The other thing that I was hit or miss on was the whole self-publishing/erotica side of things. Some of it felt very realistic, some of it felt rah rah romance, but some of it felt a bit jaded and…I don’t know. I think I might have read into things that weren’t there, so again, a me problem.
On the very plus side, the steamy scenes were very hot. A++.
So yeah. I enjoyed it, and honestly any problems I had were in the personal taste realm.
I’m sad you didn’t love this one like I did. It was my first by Halle and I read it quite a few years ago, so maybe I would change my mind these days. I have read a few others of hers I’ve liked and some not so much.